CROATIAN STUDENTS AND ENGLISH PATH VERBS – EVIDENCE OF POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE TRANSFER.
Both English and Croatian are satellite-framed languages, yet they differ significantly in how they express spatial relations. This contrast is particularly noticeable when comparing English path verbs and their Croatian counterparts. Croatian learners of English often struggle with using prepositio...
| Publicado en: | Croatica et Slavica Iadertina Vol. 21; no. 2; pp. 343 - 372 |
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| Autor principal: | |
| Formato: | Artículo |
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University of Zadar, Department of Croatian & Slavic Studies
2025
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| Sumario: | Both English and Croatian are satellite-framed languages, yet they differ significantly in how they express spatial relations. This contrast is particularly noticeable when comparing English path verbs and their Croatian counterparts. Croatian learners of English often struggle with using prepositions alongside certain English path verbs, leading to the production of incorrect sentences. However, with other English path verbs, their usage of prepositions tends to be accurate. This behavioural study aimed to investigate whether these difficulties might be attributed to transfer from Croatian. A total of 82 subjects participated and solved a cloze test containing path and manner verbs. The results suggest that strong negative transfer occurs with English path verbs whose Croatian equivalents are prefixed motion verbs governing prepositions cognate with their prefixes. Conversely, positive transfer occurs in the case of English path verbs whose Croatian equivalents are either prefixed or unprefixed verbs not accompanied by prepositions. These insights may prove valuable in shaping more effective methods for teaching prepositions. I engleski i hrvatski pripadaju satelitima uokvirenim jezicima, no uvelike se razlikuju po tome kako izražavaju prostorne odnose. Taj je kontrast osobito primjetan kada uspoređujemo engleske glagole kretanja koji izriču put i njihove hrvatske ekvivalente. Hrvatski studenti engleskoga jezika često imaju poteškoća kada je u pitanju uporaba prijedloga s određenim engleskim glagolima koji izriču put, što rezultira netočnim rečenicama. Istovremeno, u slučaju nekih engleskih glagola koji izriču put ne rade greške pri uporabi prijedloga. Cilj je ovoga istraživanja ispitati uz pomoć bihevioralne metode mogu li se navedene poteškoće pripisati transferu iz hrvatskoga. U istraživanju su sudjelovala 82 ispitanika koji su rješavali upitnik koji je sadržavao i glagole koji izriču put i one koji izriču način kretanja. Rezultati upućuju na postojanje jakoga negativnoga transfera u slučaju engleskih glagola kretanja koji izriču put čiji su hrvatski ekvivalenti prefigirani glagoli kretanja nakon kojih slijedi prijedlog koji dijeli oblik s prefiksom. Nasuprot tomu, postoje indikacije pozitivnoga transfera u slučaju engleskih glagola kretanja koji izriču put čiji su hrvatski ekvivalenti prefigirani ili neprefigirani glagoli nakon kojih ne slijedi prijedlog. Rezultati ovoga istraživanja mogu pomoći pri oblikovanju učinkovitih metoda za poučavanje prijedloga. |
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